Has late registration gone too far?

[fundiver199]

I also think, late registration has gone to far. I recently played a 5$ "deep" tournament on 888 with 12 minutes between blind increases. Late registration ran for 2½ hours, which mean, that the last players bought in with something like 10BB stacks.

Especially in a tournament labeled "deep", it would be more reasonable to close late registration, when a starting stack is something like 50BB, so that everyone was forced to get involved in at least some postflop play.

If somebody wants to play push or fold poker, then there are turbos and hyper turbos for that. Sites dont need to cater for this audience in every single tournament including those, they label "deep". But as others have written, its all about generating maximum profit.

 

[pjokay]

I also think, late registration has gone to far. I recently played a 5$ "deep" tournament on 888 with 12 minutes between blind increases. Late registration ran for 2½ hours, which mean, that the last players bought in with something like 10BB stacks.

Especially in a tournament labeled "deep", it would be more reasonable to close late registration, when a starting stack is something like 50BB, so that everyone was forced to get involved in at least some postflop play.

If somebody wants to play push or fold poker, then there are turbos and hyper turbos for that. Sites dont need to cater for this audience in every single tournament including those, they label "deep". But as others have written, its all about generating maximum profit.

I found the one I was in ludicrous, if for more people had been knocked out in the preceding few minutes you could literally have bought in in the money which is unfair on the 440 odd or so players that had battled it out for 3.5 hours and did not make it.

I got knocked out AQs but actually wouldn't have played the hand if I knew I was on the bubble but you do not expect registration to run to the bubble. Found it absolutely bizarre. If they are going to that they should display places paid in the info tab on the table so you can see how close you are.

 

[pjokay]

If you do not like a long late check can go to MTSNG

Or just don't have stupidly long registrations on tournaments? As stated above something is seriously wrong with the structure when you can buy in on the bubble.

 

[jadaminato]

I think it is unfair and the result of the ambition of the administrators

 

[ChickenArise]

Ultimately a poker room should offer a variety of different formats to increase chances of accommodating what everyone likes at least some of the time.

I for one am tired of playing many hours just to get less than my entry back when I reach the money. Do away with these prizes and start the payouts at at least double or higher.

 

[bianconi_10]

A lot of late registrations are now going on for 3 hours. How long do you think these should be. Years ago you either did not have them or they were limited to an hour.


Now you have no idea how many players will be in a tournament except a rough guess by the guaranteed amount. It can also create a funny situation where sometimes players have not has to play and last the first few hours of a tournament, late reg just before it closes and while entering extremely short stacked can enter at a point when sometimes more than 50% of the remaining field are paid.


Should registrations be shorter?

The late registration does not influence much at the end of the tournament, if the tournament is expected to end in 8 hours, regardless of 1 or 3 hours of registration, it will end in anticipation. Late registration only means something to those who use it strategically. You may prefer to break into a short stack strategy and pick up only the most interesting part of the game between the end of the game and the bubble, or you can enter the beginning and explore the weaker players that are usually being eliminated closer to the end of the late .

 

[Inequitas]

A lot of late registrations are now going on for 3 hours. How long do you think these should be. Years ago you either did not have them or they were limited to an hour.


Now you have no idea how many players will be in a tournament except a rough guess by the guaranteed amount. It can also create a funny situation where sometimes players have not has to play and last the first few hours of a tournament, late reg just before it closes and while entering extremely short stacked can enter at a point when sometimes more than 50% of the remaining field are paid.


Should registrations be shorter?

Hmmm Its a mechanism which is designed to extract a much larger amount of buyin's and re-buys from the participants, then Add-ons too...

Nothing like the Cut off we experience at the CardsChat Freeroll Club lol so it's some thing we have to learn to deal with outside of our comfort zones...

Yes I agree I've spent 3hours before playing with numbers remaining just above the bubble mark only to get a big influx of registrations as the cut off period/level starts... those players tend to double up and after add on also they're on equal footings with those that have had to grind....

The story goes if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger...

Just keep dodging them bullets or change the game format...

 

[Poker Orifice]

ACR has 5 to 6 hours late registration which basically makes the first 5 to 6 hours of play irrelevant and dangerous.

I'm not sure how it makes it irrelevant when it is time that we can use to build up our chipstack...

However, I do agree that the late reg. thing is too long. When ACR first began extending their late reg. tourneys, I stopped playing in them.

Increasing length of late reg. boosts up the prizepools in the tournaments, enabling sites to post bigger guarantees in hopes of attracting even more participants. Personally I think they'd be better off to limit it to 1hour and advertise that this is what they're now doing. I'm thinking it would bring back some players who are tired of the late reg. and re-entry tournies.

 

[Chicungulla]

Seriously 2 hours and there are people who are still entering the tournament ... they start a pair of hands and then the BBs eat them

 

[david1bear]

I think an hour is good, all these other times are little to long. If I get into those tournaments that have the 2-4 hour late registrations I just wait until there is a hour or less :O)

 

[furnitura47]

I think 3 hours is waaaay to much time. Even for regular speed tournaments, even with re-buys.At first you spend more money trying to stay in the tournament, you have less chances to survive untill the money, some donkey can enter the game 2 minutes before registration is closed and with a couple of crazy all-ins make all the ground. So it is unfair

 

[ronn6583]

Late registration makes sense because of the difference in time zones and provided that the tournament is slow. It makes no sense enters the tournament in shove / fold mode, i.e. when you have no more than 15bb. This is a game of luck: lucky - no luck.
The meaning of late registration in satellites and especially in freerolls is completely incomprehensible. This is probably done specifically to increase the factor of luck.

 

[essimicke]

I mean there are tournaments who's got late reg available for 24h. That's kind of ridiculous though

 

[danydidi]

your right ,its going too far and i hate it ,but you can simply chose tournaments with no late registration

 

[AdonisPimenta]

I totally understand that late registration is necessary to make affordable the prize... but it’s crazy how these kept open to register longer. 3 hours is plenty of time to have people with 10x your initial stacks.

 

[DenGybka]

Late check-in

I think that in some moments it’s cool, because we all live in different time zones and late check-in can help pretty well in this. Therefore, I believe that this should be.

 

[makisaa]

Yes, some mtts have a huge registration time. I think 60-90 minutes are an acceptable time, because over this, the blinds compairing with the starting chips are too high, so if you buy in you don`t have many odds to move further!

 

[AllenKll]

I think that ACR has gone overboard with late registrations... Look at the $2.20 Daily Special. It used to be an 8K GTD, but they cut it down to 6K GTD in the last week. It has a 4 hour LR.

I don't even bother buying in for 2 hours when I play it. The blinds are so slow that even at the end of the 4 HR LR, you can still buy in for 10BB. I usually buy in when It's around 30-40 BBs

I get to skip a lot of the tedium of playing a 200BB stack against other 200BB stacks.

For games on BOL and SB, the late reg times seem a little more reasonable and I can apply an algorithm to see how likely I am to at least min cash when I late reg in the last minute.


What I have noticed is that regardless of the actual hours, the LR period usually ends at 10BB, sometimes a little less, but rarely any more. It ends at a place where you can actually use your stack to play shove/fold poker with confidence.

So for the sake of length of play... LR sucks. but at least the circumstances around the LR period are usually reasonable.

 

[SightUnseen]

I miss the days where late reg didn't exist or was only upwards of 2 hours max. Now we have late registration up to 8 hours if not more in some tournaments, that's so insane. I always enjoyed playing Freezeout tournaments the most from many years ago, it allowed for more quality play and max pressure could be applied to players due to no re-entry. The prize pools are increased now due to unlimited re-entries and having such a long period of time to enter. These companies got to do what they got to do to make as much money as possible, i don't blame them. Business 101.

 

[kevkojak]

I'm a returning member who hadn't been on here in years, and this was the main reason for coming on tonight - I played a $2.20 progressive KO earlier and by the time late reg ended we were virtually on the bubble. 1000+ entries, I think 230 got paid and there were just over 300 left when late registration stopped.

First thought is, it's kinda pointless buying into a game like that so late when 50% of the value is in bounties which (buying in a few BBs deep) you're never gonna claim, not without the poker gods on your shoulder.

I used to get frustrated at 60 minute late reg, so yeah 2 and 3 hours is crazy.

 

[najisami]

A lot of late registrations are now going on for 3 hours. How long do you think these should be. Years ago you either did not have them or they were limited to an hour.


Now you have no idea how many players will be in a tournament except a rough guess by the guaranteed amount. It can also create a funny situation where sometimes players have not has to play and last the first few hours of a tournament, late reg just before it closes and while entering extremely short stacked can enter at a point when sometimes more than 50% of the remaining field are paid.


Should registrations be shorter?

Hey pjokey,
You brought up a real important issue. The freezeout and the 1 hour late registration were such a good poker time. Now those excessive and ridiculous long periods put a toll on players time and even affect the way people play.
We do understand that the sites want to offer attractive prizes and protect their investments too, but that negatively changes the nature of the competition. It all started with smaller sites who did not have enough volume trying to offer cheap buy-ins to nice guarantees, but why the bigger ones followed suit ? PS, FT, PP and others did not really need to spoil the fun. They could just decrease the amounts of their guarantees along with the length of those late registration periods and people would still play anyway, but they are taking everything for granted, thinking (knowing) that the players have no choice . It's just not right. .

 

[Hsac]

No late Rega

I prefer no late registrations and re-buys at all.

I do have to admit, though, I felt satisfied awhile ago when a loose cannon kept going all-in, lose, re-buy and start the cycle all over again. He was to my right so I got to capitalize on his behavior several times. Then, when the late registration and re-buy period ended, think it was an hour into play, had to have spent at least $10 for all those re-buys, I took him and his final all-in out with JJ against his AQ. That was actually the only decent hand I'd seen him play with all night.

May the Poker Gods favor your journey, unless I'm in the game
Oh hell, I hope they favor your journey anyway. We'll win together.

 

[rodo 2285]

no

I think not, there are times that you want to play 1 tournament and you do not arrive at that time, with the late registration it gives you time to get to play it, for me it is fine, and if you do not like that they have so much, you can play the turbos or hyper which are shorter

 

[natelearnspoker]

I think all tournaments should have capped late registration at one hour if not less. It's incredibly frustrating dealing with three hour late registrations and people coming in at the last minute and shoving.

I get that from a profitability standpoint longer late registration results in more people buying into tournaments, but at the expense of the players enjoying the tournament. These days, I check how long late reg is and then come in at the end so that I know that the number of players will decrease afterwards and I don't have to endure too much.

 

[Mateo]

I think all tournaments should have capped late registration at one hour if not less. It's incredibly frustrating dealing with three hour late registrations and people coming in at the last minute and shoving.

I get that from a profitability standpoint longer late registration results in more people buying into tournaments, but at the expense of the players enjoying the tournament. These days, I check how long late reg is and then come in at the end so that I know that the number of players will decrease afterwards and I don't have to endure too much.

I think there should a limited BB minimum for late reg, rather than capped on time. That way slower tourneys will still have longer late reg, but only to a min BB amount, say 25bb. Hypers etc would obviously need lower BB amounts (maybe 7-10)